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The Ka'bah - House of Allah

The Ka'bah is a stone cubicle structure measuring 15.25 m high. It is empty
on the inside except for the sacred black stone (Hajr-al-Aswad) which is embedded
in one corner. The Ka'bah is the physical centre of Islam. It is revered as
the very House of God. The Ka'bah, as hinted in the Qur'an itself, was originally
built by the Prophet Adam (as) and was, for some time, the centre of worship
for his progeny. Then in the course of time people became separated into different
communities and adopted different centres for worship. The Qur'an (Ch. 3, v.
97) and authentic Traditions favour the view that prior to the erection of a
building on this site by Abraham some sort of structure did exist, but it had
fallen into ruins and only a trace of it had remained.

Abraham, under divine guidance, then rebuilt it some 4000 years ago and it
continued to remain a centre of worship for his progeny through his son Ishmael
(peace be on them). But with the lapse of time it became virtually converted
into a house of idols which numbered as many as 360, almost the same as the
number of days in a year. At the advent of the Prophet Muhammad (sa) however,
it was again made the centre of worship for all nations -- the Holy Prophet
(sa) having been sent as a Messenger to all mankind, to unite those, who had
become separated after Prophet Adam (as) into one common human brotherhood.

It is said that around the year 570 A.D., the Christian Chief of Yemen, named
Abraha, attempted to invade Makkah with the intention of destroying the Ka'bah.
Abraha's army rode on elephants and in the Arab history the year 570 A.D. is
known as the 'Year of the Elephant'. Abraha did not succeed in his mission and
his army was destroyed by an epidemic of disease and a terrible storm. A special
mention is made of this incident in a chapter of the Holy Qur'an in Surah Al-Fil:

In the name of Allah, the Gracious, Merciful. Knowest thou not
how thy Lord dealt with the Owner of the Elephant? Did He not cause their design
to miscarry? And He sent against them swarms of birds, which ate their dead
bodies, striking them against stones of clay. And thus made them like broken
straw, eaten up.

This is the same year in which the Holy Prophet Muhammad (sa) was born, at which
time his grandfather, Abdul-Muttalib, chief of the Arab noble tribe 'Quraish',
was also the chief of Makkah.

Prophet Muhammad's (sa) desire for maintaining peace and averting conflict
is quite evident from an incident that occurred when he was about 35 years old.
The Quraish of Makkah decided to rebuild the Ka'bah after some cracks had appeared
in its walls. All the families of the Quraish assisted in this effort. As the
walls rose from the ground and the time came to replace the sacred black stone
in its place, a dispute broke out. Each of the four main families of the Quraish
wanted this honour exclusively for themselves and the construction of the Ka'bah
came to a halt. After many days of suspended work, the Quraish assembled again
and decided that the first person to enter the Ka'bah's courtyard will be chosen
to settle the dispute. Muhammad (sa) happened to be the first person to pass
through. He was informed of the dispute, quickly grasped the situation and placed
his mantle on the ground and asked that the Black Stone be placed on it. He
then asked the four families of the Quraish to hold each corner of the cloth
and raise the stone to its place. Thus, through his wisdom, he averted the conflict
and resolved the dispute in a manner acceptable to the Quraish.

No one knows for sure the background to the Black Stone (Hajr-al-Aswad), except
for the fact that it was already there when Prophet Ibrahim and Ismael (peace
be on them) rebuilt the Ka'bah under the direction of God. As the Ka'bah was
a centre of worship centuries before the advent of Prophet Ibrahim (as), it
is believed that the Black Stone was part of the original structure. And as
the structure fell to ruin over the centuries, traces of the foundation with
the Black Stone remained. God directed Prophet Ibrahim (as) to the site of the
remaining traces of the foundation and directed him to rebuild the Ka'bah for
the purpose of worship. The Black Stone was embedded in one of the four corners
above ground level.

Though it had obviously been revered and respected by the previous generations,
it should be borne in mind that the Black Stone itself does not hold any spiritual
significance at all. The pilgrim may touch or if he can approach near enough,
kiss the Black Stone, which is an emotional gesture calling to mind the Prophet
(sa) kissed it when he performed circuit. The Holy Prophet Muhammad (sa) did
this, not because of any sanctity attached to the stone, but as an expression
of his emotion at the Ka'bah, originally constructed by Prophet Ibrahim and
his son, Prophet Ismael (peace be on them), having been finally restored to
the worship of the One True God, and would henceforth remain dedicated to that
worship. Fearing that the Prophet's kissing the Black Stone might be interpreted
as ascribing some special virtue to the stone, Hadhrat Umar, the 2nd Khalifa
(peace be on him), when performing the circuit, observed: I know this is only
a stone no different from other similar stones, and were it not the memory that
the Prophet expressed his gratitude to God for His favours and bounties by kissing
it, I would pay no attention to it.

From whichever direction the pilgrim enters the enclosure and approaches the
Ka'bah, he begins his circuit from the corner in which the Black Stone is placed.
A circuit of the Ka'bah means circumambulating it 7 times, reciting certain
prayers, beginning and ending opposite the Back Stone.

The Ka'bah is held in reverence by all Muslims of the world. Pilgrimage to
the 'House of God' is a duty of every Muslim (if they can afford it), as is
facing the direction of the Ka'bah (Qiblah) during their 5 daily Prayers. The
cloth covering that drapes the Ka'bah is called the Kiswa and has a fascinating
and colourful history. Although its precise origin has been difficult to trace,
the use of the Kiswa clearly pre-dates the advent of Islam. It is traditionally
known that when the Prophet Abraham (as) was told by God to rebuild the Ka'bah,
no mention was made of the Kiswa. Some scholars argue that the first Kiswa was
made by the Prophet Ismael (as), but there is no evidence to support this. Others
affirm that the first Kiswa was made by Adnan bin Ad', a great great-grandfather
of the Prophet Muhammad (sa), but this claim also lacks authentication.

The first historically verifiable record of the draping of the Ka'bah attributes
the honour to Tabu Karab Aswad, King of Humayyur in the Yemen. Tabu invaded
Yathrib (now Madinah) in 400 C.E., 220 years before the Hijra. He also entered
Makkah and performed Umrah. He is said to have dreamt that he was making a covering
and then dressed the Ka'bah with this Kasaf made of dried palm leaves sewn together.
In one form or another, the Kiswa has draped the Ka'bah ever since.

After the Prophet Muhammad (sa) defeated the pagans of Makkah and entered
the Ka'bah, he cleansed it of all idols and turned it into a sacred sanctuary
of monotheistic Islamic worship. In the 10th year of the Hijra (630 C.E.), 2
years after the Prophet (sa) led the campaign to free Makkah, the sacred valley
of Mina, and Mount Arafat from the control of the Makkan pagans, he performed
his first and only pilgrimage (Hajj). Over 100,000 pilgrims, at that date the
largest gathering ever, flocked from all over Arabia for this pilgrimage. For
the first time in many centuries, the Ka'bah had once again become the exclusive
sanctuary of monotheism. It is said that on this pilgrimage the Prophet Muhammad
dressed the Ka'bah in its first Islamic Kiswa, referred to as the 'Yemeni Kiswa'.
Khalifa (Caliph) Umar bin Al-Khattab ordered the first Egyptian-made Kiswa in
13 A.H. (634 C.E.). It was made from thick cloth known as Gabaati. Every year,
at the time of pilgrimage, the Kiswa was cut into pieces and distributed among
the pilgrims. Verses such as 'Glory be to Allah', 'There is no God save Allah',
and 'Allah is Merciful and Loving' used to be stitched on to the Kiswa in those
early days of Islam.

At one time, it had become a custom that the old Kiswa was not removed, the
new one being put on top of the old. This continued until the reign of Al-Mahdi,
the Abbasid Khalifa. When he performed Hajj in 160 A.H. (775 C.E.) he saw that
the accumulated Kiswas could cause damage to the Ka'bah itself. He therefore
decreed that only one Kiswa should drape the Ka'bah at any one time, and this
has been observed ever since.

The colour of the Kiswa has also changed many times over the centuries. Al-Mamoon
-- 198-218 A.H. (813-833) dressed the Ka'bah in a red Kiswa, and by the reign
of contemporary of Saladin the Great, Khalifa Al-Nasir Al-Abbasi, the colour
of the Kiswa had changed to green. Khalifa Al-Nasir changed it to black, and
black it has remained to this day.

For centuries the Kiswa used to be transported from Egypt to Makkah in the
Mahmal -- a special litter at the head of a caravan, with as many as 15 camels
carrying various sections of the revered garment. The sending of the Mahmal
was regularly accompanied by much fanfare and celebration in Egypt, while its
arrival in Makkah was hailed with music and joyous acclaim. When the founder
of Saudi Arabia, the late King Abdul Aziz ibn Saud entered Makkah in 1924 C.E.,
he and his men objected to the music and dancing which accompanied the delivery
of the Kiswa from Egypt. He and his men held to the pure Islamic faith and considered
this an unacceptable innovation, and this eventually led to clashes with Egyptians
which resulted in them stopping to send the Kiswa. King Abdul Aziz founded the
holy Ka'bah factory. The first Makkan-made Kiswa to drape the Ka'bah was at
the end of 1927 and for the next 10 years Makkah produced the Kiswa.

With the political rift healed in 1939, Egypt resumed sending the Kiswa until
it fell victim again to the vagaries of political change in 1962. The Kiswa
factory in Makkah was once again opened and it was declared that 'the Kiswa
factory should be in Makkah so that it is not affected by the moods of the rulers
of the Muslim world'.

Every year the Kiswa is woven at a cost of SR17 million. It is made of 670
kg pure white silk, which is later dyed black. It is made up of 47 pieces, each
piece being 14 m long and 95 cm wide. The Ikhlas Surah from the Holy Qur'an
is embroidered in gold on the four corners. Under the belt, all round the Kiswa,
there are 16 panels with Qur'anic verses. The intricate calligraphy is emblazoned
on the black silk using 120 kg of gold and silver wire. The ratio of gold to
silver is 1 to 4. On the bright sunny days the blazing Arabian sun glints off
the Kiswa's lustrous gold and silver embroidery. At night the Kiswa shimmers
with the soft glow in the brightly-lit open courtyard of the Grand Mosque. The
effect is at once awe-inspiring and breathtaking, as well as being soothing
to the eyes of the faithful. The sight of the Ka'bah covered with the splendour
of the Kiswa is an image which becomes emblazoned in the minds of those who
have had the honour of visiting the house of Allah. With longing they will picture
this beautiful sight over and over.

The interior of the Ka'bah is draped with dark green silk, also decorated
with Qur'anic verses and Islamic designs. The solid gold doors of the Ka'bah
are set 2 m above the ground and a movable wooden canopied staircase is used
to enter the Ka'bah on the rare occasions when the doors are opened only to
the King of Saudi Arabia and his special guests.

One of these special people were the late Sir Muhammad Zafrullah Khan, a prominent
member of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Jama'at, who visited Makkah. Sir Zafrullah Khan
was a very distinguished man. In 1947 he was appointed Foreign Minister of Pakistan;
for many years he led the Pakistan Delegation to the General Assembly of the
United Nations, and he was President of the General Assembly's 17th Session.
Since then he had served as Judge and President of the International Court of
Justice at the Hague. He was not only a great expounder of Islam, but also a
distinguished and prominent member of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Jama'at. Yet, with
all these achievements, he remained a humble and pious person living a very
simple life. In the early part of 1958 he went to Makkah for the Umrah (lesser
pilgrimage), and visited Madinah as well. He was familiar with the then Prince
Faizal, who was at the time Foreign Minister of Saudi Arabia and had officially
visited Pakistan with his entourage to whom Sir Zafrullah Khan, then the Foreign
Minister of Pakistan, had afforded them excellent hospitality. In Makkah, he
was afforded royal hospitality and he was privileged to enter the Ka'bah itself
and to say two Raka'ats of Prayer facing each of the four directions. Sir Zafrullah
Khan's second visit to Makkah for Umrah and Hajj took place in the year 1967.
He was a special guest of King Faizal and was afforded impeccable hospitality
during his stay.

Twice a year, in the months of Shaban and Dhul Hijja, the interior of the
Ka'bah is ceremonially washed with water perfumed with rose and sandalwood.
The ceremonial washing is performed by the king or sometimes his deputised representative,
the governor of Makkah. Nowadays it is done by the custodian of the two Mosques.
At the second washing which takes places a few days before Hajj, the Kiswa is
replaced by a new one. The removed Kiswa is then cut into pieces and presented
as mementos to Muslim individuals and diplomats and to favoured institutions
all over the world. The reception hall in the delegates' lounge of the UN building
in New York is adorned by one particularly large and impressive piece, the Sitara
(one of the four drapes that cover the doors of the Ka'bah) which measures 2.5
m wide and 9 m high.

The Kiswa, by itself, does not hold any particular religious significance
to Muslims. It should therefore be understood that the reverence in which it
is held, and the magnitude of effort and cost that goes into its making and
upkeep, is due solely to the desire of Muslims to ensure that it reflects the
sanctity, the splendour, and the majesty befitting the structure that it drapes,
the Ka'bah -- House of Allah.

The Ka'bah is par excellence the House of Allah. Of course, all the places
of worship are 'Houses of Allah', and as the Prophet (sa) declared: 'The whole
earth is made a mosque for me', but the Ka'bah has been declared by God Himself
to be the Sacred House, being the first House consecrated to the worship of
the One True God (Holy Qur'an, Ch. 3: v. 97). Thus the expression 'House of
Allah' is understood through the Muslim world to refer to the Ka'bah.